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Neuroscience

Neuroscientists Use Pac-Man Style Video Games To Study The Origin Of Human Emotions – Hot Hardware

While anyone could say a good movie, book, or video game made them feel emotional, scientists did not understand why until now. A research team at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, found that emotions result from the synchronization of several neural systems throughout the brain. They found this out by analyzing volunteers' "feelings, expressions, and physiological responses" while playing a video game designed for arousing different emotions depending on the game's progress.As the University of Geneva press release explains, "Emotions are complex phenomena that influence our minds, bodies, and behavior." This complexity makes emotions challenging to understand and study. Previously, theories "have attempted to model the emergence of an emotion, although none has so far been proven experimentally." Moreover, experiments relating to emotions were more "targeted," such as showing a volunteer an image or video to try and extract emotion from a specific area of the brain. "The problem is, these [neural] regions overlap for different emotions, so they're not specific," as one area of the brain, says Joana Leito, a post-doctoral neuroscience fellow at the university. On the other hand, video games can evoke emotions and target different areas of the brain at one time, making them a viable candidate for experimentation with volunteers.With the thought of video games in mind, the neuroscientists at the University of Geneva created a video game to evoke emotions by putting volunteers "in situations they'll have to evaluate so they can advance and win rewards," as Dr. Leito explains. The game is similar to Pac-Man in a way, where players need to grab coins, interact with "nice monsters," ignore the "neutral monsters," and avoid the "bad guys" to win points and go to the next level. These game features create scenarios that trigger different emotions through a theoretical model called the component process model, whereby other neurological pieces come together to form an emotional state. During the game, the researchers were then able to study volunteers' brain activity through facial imaging, feelings through questions, and physiology through several other methods. Once the study was complete, the researchers could conclusively state that emotions are created when different brain components work in parallel to create an emotional state. This finding "validat[es] the idea that emotion is grounded in action-oriented functions in order to allow an adapted response to events." While there could be more happening inside the brain when emotions are created, we now have a base understanding of the 'why' emotions happen, and thanks to video games, no less. My mom always said video games were bad for my brain, but maybe they were just making me more emotionally developed.

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Neuroscientists Use Pac-Man Style Video Games To Study The Origin Of Human Emotions - Hot Hardware

Neuroscience

Why did the Human Brain Project Crash and Burn? – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

The Human Brain Project from 2013 sounded like science fiction in an EU setting: We will build a brain in a decade: And, if we do succeed, we will send, in ten years, a hologram to talk to you.

Well, we all got one thing right. It was fiction. Filmmaker Noah Hutton, a sympathetic observer, chronicled the decline, producing a documentary, In Silico, that focuses on booster Henry Markram who, according to his TED talk bio from 2009, was director of Blue Brain, a supercomputing project that can model components of the mammalian brain to precise cellular detail and simulate their activity in 3D. Soon hell simulate a whole rat brain in real time.

When the project started to wobble, many neuroscientists were angry and disappointed:

But that year (2010), Hutton also started to encounter critics in the neuroscience community. They claimed that the simulation project was premature because too little was known about the different types of neuron in the brain and how they were wired. Anyone can repair a broken watch by putting its known components in the right places, neuroscientist Zachary Mainen at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal, tells the camera. Try this with the incompletely understood components of the brain, he says, and youll end up with a bunch of parts that doesnt tell the time.

By 2014, about 750 neuroscientists had signed a letter pledging that they wouldnt participate and by 2016, Markram was no longer in charge.

And the whole brain maps? They never happened.

Reflecting on the premiere of the documentary, science writer Alison Abbott tells us,

Hutton hints that the disputes were driven by money. I disagree; my sense is that it came down to leadership style and irresolvable differences in scientific opinion. There is a bolder, even more interesting, story waiting to be told.

Abbott does not spell out the irresolvable differences in scientific opinion but we cant help wondering if they relate to the question of whether the brain can be understood in such a simplistic way.

Some thoughts from The Guardian in 2014:

Central to the latest controversy are recent changes made by Henry Markram, head of the Human Brain Project at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne. The changes sidelined cognitive scientists who study high-level brain functions, such as thought and behaviour. Without them, the brain simulation will be built from the bottom up, drawing on more fundamental science, such as studies of individual neurons. The brain, the most complex object known, has some 86bn neurons and 100tn connections.

The main apparent goal of building the capacity to construct a larger-scale simulation of the human brain is radically premature, Peter Dayan, director of the computational neuroscience unit at UCL, told the Guardian.

Some thoughts from The Scientist in 2015:

After weathering serious criticism last year, the European Commission-backed effort to map the brains neural connections must reform or die, a review panel says.

Its been a rough nine months for the European Commissions Human Brain Project (HBP). More than 250 of Europes top neuroscientists threatened to boycott the $1.6 billion effort to create a computer simulation of the human brain last July, and now a European Commission (EC) review panel has echoed some of the same concerns voiced by those scientists.

Some thoughts from HBC, a portal dedicated to fast computers, in 2019:

From the outset, HBP was beset by criticism unrealistic goals, un-useful goals, poor organization, waste of scarce research resources said many. Others argued its big goals would lead to big insights as well as myriad useful tools. Its hard to gloss over the HBPs problems, but perhaps too easy to understate its contributions Whether the HBP was and is tilting at windmills is a significant question.

Tilting at windmills along with Don Quixote maybe? (See the illustration of the outcome of the Dons famous attempt to charge a windmill.) What if the brain is not only not a computer but not even like a computer?

As neuroscientist Yuri Danilov has pointed out, Right now people are saying, each synoptical connection is a microprocessor. So if its a microprocessor, you have 1012 neurons, each neuron has 105 synapses, so you have you can compute how many parallel processing units you have in the brain if each synapse is a microprocessor. But as soon as you assume that each neuron is a microprocessor, you assume that there is a programmer. There is no programmer in the brain; there are no algorithms in the brain.

The human brain exceeds the most powerful computers in efficiency. Its also not clear exactly how it works. Lemurs, with brains 1/200th the size of a chimpanzees brain, passed the same IQ test. And this is to say nothing of the little understood relationship between the human brain and the human mind.

Underlying the quarrels and stalemates of the Human Brain Project may be practical problems with the idea of simply simulating the brain on a computer.

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Why did the Human Brain Project Crash and Burn? - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Neuroscience

Cerevel Therapeutics to Host Investor Webcast Moderated by Stifel – GlobeNewswire

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerevel Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CERE), a company dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the brain totreatneurosciencediseases, announced it will host a live webcast providing a current corporate overview, followed by a moderated question and answer session on Monday, December 14.

The live webcast will be from 11:00 a.m. to noon EST with presentations from Tony Coles, M.D., chairperson and chief executive officer, Ray Sanchez, M.D., chief medical officer, and John Renger, Ph.D., chief scientific officer. The question and answer session will also include Kathy Yi, chief financial officer, and will be moderated by Paul Matteis, managing director and senior biotech analyst at Stifel.

The live webcast can be accessed on the investor relations section of the Cerevel Therapeutics website here. A replay will be available in the same section of the companys website for approximately 90 days.

About Cerevel TherapeuticsCerevel Therapeutics is dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the brain to treat neuroscience diseases. The company is tackling neuroscience diseases with a differentiated approach that combines expertise in neurocircuitry with a focus on receptor selectivity. Cerevel Therapeutics has a diversified pipeline comprising five clinical-stage investigational therapies and several preclinical compounds with the potential to treat a range of neuroscience diseases, including schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinsons disease and substance use disorder. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Cerevel Therapeutics is advancing its current research and development programs while exploring new modalities through internal research efforts, external collaborations or potential acquisitions. For more information, visit http://www.cerevel.com.

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on managements beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: may, will, could, would, should, expect, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, project, potential, continue, ongoing or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement contained in this press release, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements about the potential attributes and benefits of our product candidates, the format and timing of our product development activities and clinical trials, including the expected timing of data announcements, and the sufficiency of our financial resources. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this press release will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if the forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. Actual performance and results may differ materially from those projected or suggested in the forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including, among others: that clinical trial results may not be favorable; uncertainties inherent in the product development process (including with respect to the timing of results and whether such results will be predictive of future results); the impact of COVID-19 on the timing, progress and results of ongoing or planned clinical trials; other impacts of COVID-19, including operational disruptions or delays or to our ability to raise additional capital; whether and when, if at all, our product candidates will receive approval from the FDA or other regulatory authorities, and for which, if any, indications; competition from other biotechnology companies; uncertainties regarding intellectual property protection; and other risks identified in our SEC filings, including those under the heading Risk Factors in our definitive proxy statement/prospectus filed with the SEC on October 7, 2020. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Media Contact:Rachel EidesW2O purereides@purecommunications.com

Investor Contact:Matthew CalistriCerevel Therapeuticsmatthew.calistri@cerevel.com

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Cerevel Therapeutics to Host Investor Webcast Moderated by Stifel - GlobeNewswire

Neuroscience

Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market Size, Analytical Overview, Growth Factors, Demand, and Forecast to 2027 – Cheshire Media

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Neuroscience Antibodies and Assays Market Size, Analytical Overview, Growth Factors, Demand, and Forecast to 2027 - Cheshire Media

Neuroscience

Researchers receive $651,997 funding to study memory dysfunction in MS – News-Medical.Net

Researchers at Montclair State University and Kessler Foundation have received funding totaling $651,997 from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to measure memory-related abilities in individuals with and without multiple sclerosis (MS) for clues to how such cognitive processes are altered by MS. Joshua Sandry, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Montclair State and Ekaterina Dobryakova, PhD, research scientist in the Center for Traumatic Brain Injury Research at Kessler Foundation, collaborate on the 4-year study, titled "Neuroimaging of Hippocampally Mediated Memory Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis."

Dr. Sandry, director of the Cognition and Neurocognitive Disorders Research Laboratory, at Montclair State, is principal investigator for this project. Dr. Dobryakova will oversee the clinical study, including advanced neuroimaging studies performed at the research-dedicated Rocco Ortenzio Center for Neuroimaging at Kessler Foundation.

Memory problems are a common cognitive disability that negatively affect the quality of life of individuals with MS. Despite the urgent need to develop effective treatments, this challenge has been met with mixed success. Lack of knowledge about the underlying cognitive and brain processes responsible for memory problems in MS hinders clinical progress.

This study aims to translate research from cognitive neuroscience to the MS research community to help identify which underlying cognitive and brain processes are impacted by MS. Specifically, researchers will investigate how changes in working memory and structural changes in the hippocampus may contribute to the memory problems that affect individuals with MS.

To our knowledge, this is the first investigation to utilize a strong translational approach to begin to pinpoint the interrelationship of working memory, brain functioning, and long-term memory problems in MS. This cutting-edge research may provide a strong foundation to our understanding of memory loss, and lead to effective interventions for restoring lost function."

Dr. Ekaterina Dobryakova, PhD, Research Scientist, Center for Traumatic Brain Injury Research, Kessler Foundation

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Researchers receive $651,997 funding to study memory dysfunction in MS - News-Medical.Net

Neuroscience

To Convince Vaccine Skeptics, Use Empathy, Information and a Re-Start, Experts Say – Duke Today

DURHAM, N.C. With multiple COVID-19 vaccines on the way in the United States, public health officials now face the daunting challenge of convincing skeptics to actually get the vaccine.

Three Duke experts in public health messaging, leadership and human behavior spoke with journalists Thursday in a virtual media briefing about challenges and solutions.

Replay the briefing on YouTube.

Here are excerpts:

ON REACHING PEOPLE WHO DONT FOLLOW PUBLIC HEALTH RECOMMENDATIONS

Dan Ariely, psychologist, behavioral economist

Doing something now, after a really, really long time of not doing a lot, is not easy. We have to work against a lot of forces. The first thing we need to do is put a time separation between the past and between the future. Theres lots of negative trends in life. Theres not upward trends. If we want an upward trend, what we need to do is stop, reflect and start fresh. Think of something like the Day of Atonement, or the Catholic confession. We need to create a new contract.

If you think about peoples personal experience, it would basically teach us that its not a good idea to follow the guidelines. Think about something like texting and driving. Imagine if you think to yourself the probability of texting and driving and something bad happening is 1 percent. So one day you drive and youre tempted by your phone, and you text, and nothing happened. So you update your belief and say maybe its not one percent, its more like .75 of a percent.

COVID-19 is a terrible tragedy but on an individual level, if you one day walk without a mask, or youre not careful and nothing bad happens to you, you learn the wrong lesson and you learn it again and again. Its a low probability event. So we need very different tools. We cant hope that peoples personal experience will teach them this is a good idea.

We need social understanding that this is the right behavior. We need people to say to each other, Im sorry, I dont feel comfortable. Would you mind putting a mask on? It has to be friendly enforcement of everything we do.

ON WHAT MESSAGING WORKS, WHAT DOESNT

Gary Bennett, professor of psychology and neuroscience

Browbeating doesnt work. Its also not useful to imagine that all of the kinds of change were trying to promote is within the control of the individuals. Organizations, leaders have a role to put together policies and systems and structures that will make it easier for individuals to adhere to recommendations.

There is a widespread perception that education is a cure-all. If we just told people more about the condition, if we just helped them understand how significant an event this is, they would change. That kind of notion doesnt work.

We want to do a lot less telling people what to do, and show them examples of how they can do it. It really starts with leaders; its really critical they model the types of recommendations theyre making.

If youre a business leader, having your handwashing stations, having your sanitizing stations, having a testing protocol, those are all really critical components.

Id argue we also have to have empathy for the complexity of this moment.

What we aspire to is a world in which everyone feels theyre doing the right things by following the guidelines. Thats about having very clear goals and being very consistent with them. Be really, really careful to encourage people and not to browbeat them when they have not adhered.

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF HIGH VACCINATION RATES

Lavanya Vasudevan, assistant professor of family medicine and community health

In my opinion, our best hope of getting the pandemic under control is to get high rates of vaccinations. Vaccines arent going to be our only way out of this pandemic, but I definitely believe they will be a very important component.

Public health is all about collective action. There is no public in public health without public participation.

Having effective vaccines like we have right now are critical. But vaccines themselves dont save lives; vaccinations do.

We need to focus all our efforts on doing everything we can to get people vaccinated. My hope is that as the vaccination campaigns unfold in the UK, Canada and here in the U.S., we will see the vaccine acceptances go up. Theres no excuse for losing more lives to this pandemic once we have an approved vaccine.

ON THE BEST VACCINE PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGNS

Lavanya Vasudevan

The two things that come up are the need for information and the need for trust. Information alone is not enough; it is important that the information has certain characteristics. The more personalized information is, the more it answers the questions that people have, as opposed to it being generic, (the better it is.)

Who is providing that information? If you just have information coming from a source you dont know or trust, that information is not going to go very far.

Gary Bennett

Vaccine hesitancy is going to be a primary risk factor for COVID deaths in the next year. This is one of the most important public health challenges for our time.

For me, the mistrust is a primary challenge that were going to be dealing with. The reasons for mistrust vary considerably across the population. They happen to be particularly high in populations that have the highest rates of COVID. So it would be a mistake to imagine a kind of one-size-fits-all public service campaign as a solution. It will take a much more nuanced strategy.

ON ONE WAY TO MAKE IT EASIER TO BE VACCINATED

Dan Ariely

If I could design a system to increase vaccination, one of things Id change is, Id change the default. Right now when you wake up in the morning, the default is that youre not vaccinated and you need to do something to get vaccinated. This creates a bias against doing it. I would love to schedule for each citizen an appointment for vaccination. Id still allow the citizen to opt out. But instead of saying, I want in, they can opt out. Thats a shift in the way of thinking about this. I think more people would get vaccinated. The systems we create are incredibly important. Is it the easiest thing to do to get vaccinated?

So here we need to say, How do we make it public? How do we make it visible? How do we make it the default?

ON REBUILDING TRUST IN GOVERNMENT

Dan Ariely

Trust is one of those things that allow us to collaborate. If I think other people are not going to adhere to the COVID rules, I dont have a reason to do it as well. Its only if everybody does it that we all have the benefit.

I think a new president can get us to start a new contract with the government, basically saying lets start fresh from now. Here are the rules. That president will also have .... to say, I will communicate when things will go well and when things dont go well.

We can have a new contract, but it cant be an empty promise. It has to be something with some power behind it.

We need better explanations for what the science is. Some people are afraid of injections. What is this material that comes in? Theres all kinds of conspiracy theories around. I think we need to calm people down. Maybe we need to take this fear seriously, with respect, and explain what is an RNA-based vaccination? What does it look like? How does it work? What is the mechanism? We cant do a Ph.D. in biology but maybe we need to work a little bit on helping people understand what this is all about.

ON EMPATHY FROM LEADERS

Gary Bennett

I think its critically important. An essential human need is to be seen and heard and understood. When leaders demonstrate that with their words, its an essential building block in establishing trust.

The challenge for leaders now is being vulnerable enough and wise enough to do the hard work of really understanding some of the reasons for the mistrust and how they may vary among different groups.

My recommendation to policymakers at moments like these is to really spend some time listening intently to various constituencies.

ON LEADERS ADDRESSING VACCINE UNCERTAINTY

Gary Bennett

The first thing is certainly not to try to be all-knowing. That generally fails. This is a critical challenge for most organizations at most times. Its particularly true right now.

Frequent communication is absolutely critical, and the nature of that communication is critically important. Communication from leaders to others that is authentic, that is transparent as possible, that demonstrates empathy and knowledge is really important.

One way of countering uncertainty is to provide certainty where certainty can be provided. Communicating what we know on a relatively expected and pre-defined timeline is really important.

The challenge for leaders in moments of uncertainty is that trust is in short supply. The return on investment for frequent communication is only realized at some point far in the future.

Lavanya Vasudevan

Trust cannot be earned overnight. It really takes long-term effort, building relationships to build trust.

ON US VACCINE CAMPAIGNS AND DENIALISM

Lavanya Vasudevan

We have the added challenge of being in a highly partisan environment, but I would argue that is not unique to the U.S. You see that in other parts of the world as well. In terms of what we need to communicate, this tailoring and personalization is extremely important.

We are seeing this huge wave of denial. Even though there were 3,000 deaths yesterday, there are huge numbers of people out there saying there is no COVID-19.

This is one of the issues weve had in this COVID-19 pandemic in general. We have made tremendous scientific progress given we knew nothing a year ago. But there are still gaps in information, and what happens when you have gaps, those gaps get filled in with things other than science. You have misinformation, myths. And when you have something in place, its harder to dislodge that and replace that with science and facts.

ON CREATING VACCINE DEMAND

Dan Ariely

I think we should use the scarcity as a way to create motivation. Im imagining that we have a wait list. We let everybody sign up and wait. Even if 58 percent of people sign up, there will be a long wait list. It will look like everyone wants this.

ON CONCERNS ABOUT LONG-TERM VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS

Lavanya Vasudevan

With the number of deaths we have had over 3,000 yesterday even a vaccine that offers short-term benefits is worth it. Thats something we need to communicate. If it turns out the immunity is just going to last for a year and well have to re-vaccinate, well figure out a way to do that.

ON SKEPTICISM OF HOW FAST VACCINES WERE CREATED

Gary Bennett

Weve gone from the bliss of a year ago to having a vaccine in a year. It only makes sense that people would imagine theres something wrong with the speed of that timeline.

The fact is, weve known how to create these vaccines for quite a long time. The U.S. government invested a ton of money in providing readiness to be able to stand up vaccines like this.

Messaging that kind of thing now is unlikely to be heard in the way we would hope it to.

My concern is that in the politically fraught environment in which we live, its been impossible to describe the response, the public/private partnership that has resulted in these vaccines in the way that we should. Its on the order of the kinds of public works projects we saw in World War II.

Its a fairly amazing undertaking. Its been challenging to describe. I hope that changes.

Dan Ariely

People think of it as a year. Its not a year. Its been an ongoing effort for a very long time.

I think science has (not) done a good job of promoting science. I think we should have had a celebration of all the people working so hard for such a long time to find solutions. Its a great history of people working unbelievably hard to try to figure this out.

So its not true to think of it as a year. Its a breadth of effort.

ON POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

Gary Bennett

We had a moment back in February/March where there was a pretty good chance that we could have significantly curtailed this pandemic. There are some arguments that say that President Trump is one of the few people who probably could have gotten it done in some respects because he could have spoken to a group of people who are particularly disaffected and less historically likely to (listen) to government messages.

We have another chance coming now with the vaccine. Its the kind of thing that should be unifying to some degree really across this politically fraught divide we have right now.

Its going to require really deft leadership that isnt focused exclusively on hogging the mic at all times.

ON WHAT YOUD SAY TO A FRIEND WHOS UNSURE ABOUT VACCINE

Dan Ariely

I would say I think theres no chance they will regret it, but, if they dont take it they are either going to get sick or get other people sick, and they could regret it. I would ask them to imagine how they would feel if they passed COVID-19 to someone else. Just try to imagine how that would feel. Now tell me you shouldnt do a lot to prevent that terrible feeling of regret that you didnt take the vaccination earlier.

Gary Bennett

I usually ask people to get three people in your mind, over age 60, people you care about now imagine that you have the ability to keep them from getting this disease. Help me understand why you wouldnt choose to do the right thing. For me, this is about the communal impact and helping people to understand that even if youre in a very low risk group, the decisions they make have potentially significant impacts.

Lavanya Vasudevan

I would actually try to understand what their positions on vaccines are and what their concerns are and try to respond to that directly.

Faculty Participants

Dan ArielyDan Ariely is a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke, and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. He studies the irrational ways people behave and designs ways to make human behavior more rational.

Gary BennettGary Bennett is a professor of psychology and neuroscience, global health and medicine at Duke University. He directs the Duke Global Digital Health Science Center and is also president of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Lavanya VasudevanLavanya Vasudevan is an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and the Global Health Institute at Duke. She is also a faculty affiliate at Dukes Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research.

Duke experts on a variety of other topics related the coronavirus pandemic can be found here.

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Continued here:
To Convince Vaccine Skeptics, Use Empathy, Information and a Re-Start, Experts Say - Duke Today

Cell Biology

Faze Medicines Launches With $81 Million Series A Financing to Leverage New Biology of Biomolecular Condensates to Treat Disease – Business Wire

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Faze Medicines, a biotechnology company pioneering therapeutics based on the groundbreaking new science of biomolecular condensates, today announced its launch and Series A financing of $81 million. Faze is founded by leading experts in the emerging field of biomolecular condensates with the mission of leveraging this fundamentally new understanding of cell biology to develop therapies to slow, halt or reverse disease pathology. The Series A was led by Third Rock Ventures with Novartis Venture Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, AbbVie Ventures, Invus, Catalio Capital Management, Casdin Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments participating.

Biomolecular condensates are membrane-less clusters of molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, that dynamically organize to perform a wide array of cell functions. Research over the past decade, including seminal work by Fazes founders, has found that disturbances in the behavior of condensates play a causative role in myriad human diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Faze is now poised to deliver medical breakthroughs based on this fundamentally new understanding of cell biology.

The biology of condensates is the kind of science that will rewrite textbooks and, we believe, rewrite medicine, said Cary Pfeffer, M.D., interim chief executive officer of Faze and partner at Third Rock Ventures. Faze is founded by leading experts who have been integral to this field since its very beginnings. Their insights, coupled with the deep expertise of the team we have assembled, will enable us to realize the enormous potential of this new biology.

Cell biology is undergoing a transformation as we come to understand the integral role that biomolecular condensates play within cell processes from DNA repair to intracellular transport, added Rachel Meyers, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Faze. Faze was founded to translate these exciting discoveries out of the lab and into the clinic, where they could make a real difference in treating diseases that have seen very little therapeutic progress.

The Series A will support Fazes preclinical research in two initial therapeutic focus areas ALS and myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) as well as research to explore condensate biology in other disease areas. In ALS and DM1, a robust body of literature points to a causative role for condensate dysregulation. Leveraging state-of-the-art screening and proteomics techniques, Faze will identify proteins that are key components or regulators of disease-causing condensates, and then employ proprietary assays to discover small molecule drugs targeting these proteins.

Founders and Leadership

Faze is founded by renowned scientific leaders in the field of biomolecular condensates:

Fazes leadership team brings together accomplished biotechnology executives with decades of industry experience and deep scientific, drug discovery and drug development knowledge:

Joining Dr. Pfeffer on the companys inaugural board of directors is:

Faze has additionally established a robust group of expert advisors including those in the areas of drug discovery and clinical development.

About Faze Medicines

Faze Medicines is a biotechnology company harnessing the groundbreaking new science of biomolecular condensates to create medical breakthroughs. Faze was founded by renowned scientific leaders in the field of biomolecular condensates and is supported by a world-class syndicate of investors including Third Rock Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, AbbVie Ventures, Invus, Catalio Capital Management, Casdin Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments. For more information, visit fazemed.com.

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Faze Medicines Launches With $81 Million Series A Financing to Leverage New Biology of Biomolecular Condensates to Treat Disease - Business Wire

Cell Biology

New Worthington Enzyme and Biochemical Product Catalog Features Solutions for Life Science Research and Bulk Requirements – Newswise

LAKEWOOD, NJ (December 9, 2020) Worthington, the leading supplier of specialty enzymes for over 70 years, announces today the publication of an expanded, 2021-22 Enzyme and Biochemical Product Catalog. As a primary enzyme producer for biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, pre-clinical research and bioprocessing applications, Worthington is the go-to expert in enzyme technology.

Even with COVID restrictions in place, Worthington employees have been diligently working to support our customers needs, said Jim Zacka, vice president at Worthington. Releasing a number of new products this year, we continue our legacy of advancing research through innovation in enzyme development for both research, OEM and bioprocessing customers.

The new catalog is available in two easy-to-use formats, a downloadable PDF and an easy-to-navigate, digital catalog for online browsing and purchasing.

To request a PDF, go to: Worthington-Biochem.com

About Worthington Biochemical Corporation

Founded in 1947, Worthington Biochemical Corporation is an industry leader in the development and production of high-quality purified enzymes, proteins, nucleic acids and cell isolation kits for life science research, diagnostics and biotechnology applications. An ISO9001 Certified, primary manufacturer Worthington meets enzyme requirements from research to scale-up bulk bioprocessing and OEM applications. Products extensively cited in peer-review journals and open-access publications, the company is committed to supporting STEM education. Worthington Biochemical Corporation is a privately held company, headquartered in Lakewood, NJ and has worldwide distribution through a network of exclusive distributors.

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New Worthington Enzyme and Biochemical Product Catalog Features Solutions for Life Science Research and Bulk Requirements - Newswise

Cell Biology

Repair protein may prevent damage to healthy cells during cancer therapy – News-Medical.net

A key way radiation therapy and chemotherapy work is by making highly lethal double-strand breaks in the DNA of cancer cells. A Georgia Cancer Center scientist wants to help those therapies work better by better understanding the complex DNA damage repair process, because sometimes these therapies can inadvertently contribute to cancer.

We are trying to identify a repair protein that can help healthy cells avoid dying or becoming cancerous."

Dr. Chunhong Yan, Molecular Biologist, Cancer center, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University

ATF3, a sensor of cell stress which Yan's team has shown is an early and important player in DNA damage repair, may be that protein. A new $1.7 million grant (R01CA240966) from the National Cancer Institute is helping them find out.

Our hereditary material is contained in the nucleus of our cells, and is constantly bombarded by factors like sunlight and oxidative stress, even chemicals in our food. Our healthy cells are mostly adept at DNA damage repair, but cancer cells have a defect in their DNA damage repair mechanism that should leave them more vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation. In fact, our healthy cells' natural, rapid ability to repair DNA damage is considered a natural cancer barrier because incomplete repairs can accumulate and become cancer, Yan says. That's one of the reasons cancer risk generally increases with age.

One of the problems with radiation and chemotherapy is the collateral damage it does to healthy cells. Despite efforts at more targeted delivery, the treatments also can produce serious, double-strand breaks in the DNA of healthy cells, putting them at risk of dying or becoming part of the tumor, one of the unfortunate side effects of these therapies and key reasons for Yan's interest. "If we can find something that specifically only kills cancer cells, but keeps normal cells healthy, that could be very beneficial to patients," he says.

So Yan and his lab are dissecting this important "genome maintenance" of DNA repair. If their findings continue to hold, their ultimate goal is new cancer therapies that make increased use of the ATF3's skill at stopping spontaneous tumor production.

They have already shown that the protein ATF3 is essential to efficient, complete access to DNA and its repair. That without it mice get more tumors, which suggests that ATF3 is important in suppressing tumor formation, he says. That includes establishing a direct link between ATF3 and the established tumor suppressor p53. They found ATF3 can bind to p53 and increase expression of this protein which also has a role in DNA damage response, including going to the scene and putting the cell in a state of rest to ease repair. The other side of the coin is that when a cell can't repair, p53 enables it to commit suicide. Without ATF3, there is a better chance the cell will just become cancer, Yan says.

But good repair first requires access. To get our long DNA to fit inside our compact cells, proteins called histones provide a sort of spool, called a nucleosome, around which the iconic double-stranded DNA is wound. Chromatin is the biological packaging. In the snug confines of chromatin, the familiar classic double helix that resembles a twisted ladder is more of an X-shape resembling a clothespin.

When a cell senses DNA damage, the histones need to modify the chromatin so repair proteins can get inside and do their work and the DNA needs to relax its grip on the nucleosome. One they gain access to the damage, repair proteins enable what is called non-homologous end-joining by essentially trimming the broken ends of the damaged DNA and patching them back together.

Yan is learning more about those modifications to the histones and the ones needed to recruit those repair proteins, which already are in the nucleus, right to the damage site.

Their goals including learning more about how ATF3, also already present in the cell nucleus, gets to the actual DNA damage site. They have evidence that yet another histone, called H2AX, may be part of that.

H2AX is in the chromatin, and when there is a double-strand break in the DNA, it gets modified within seconds into? H2AX, which Yan's lab has evidence recruits ATF3 to the damage site. Yan notes that while he cannot yet say that these are the first changes, he can say they are very early ones.

"What we have found is ATF3 can come to the damage site pretty quickly, and promote the chromatin change," Yan says. They've found ATF3 binding to and stabilizing the enzymes Tip60 and p300/CBP can help provide direct access to the DNA damage site so repair proteins can move in.

This so-called histone acetylation is considered a principal way DNA damage repair happens, so identifying the genes that regulate this important intersection so that cells can be properly repaired and avoid becoming cancerous is important, Yan says.

Yan's lab has shown that ATF3 can activate the natural tumor suppressor p53 while getting Tip60 to activate the major DNA damage response kinase ATM, which provides a sort of framework for the team of repair proteins that will be recruited. p53 also is an early arriver, like a master engineer, helping make decisions on whether or not the DNA is a loss or can be repaired.

Now they want to learn more about how ATF3 promotes p300/CBP that ultimately brings on multiple repair proteins. That includes learning more about how ATF3 alters chromatin's structure to help recruit these repair proteins. A mouse missing ATF3 is enabling them to better see the roles of ATF3 including exploring further whether cancer increases when it is MIA.

Yan has documented lower ATF3 levels in people with cancer; and how taking down ATF3 levels decreases DNA repair and increases susceptibility to radiation. His research team also has found ATF3 is important in stopping damaged cells from becoming cancer. Yan and others additionally have shown that ATF3 can suppress spread of lung, colon and bladder cancers.

DNA damage is one of the most common sources of cell stress.

Like many body functions, the DNA repair mechanism tends to get less efficient with age. DNA damage, unrepaired or incompletely repaired, can lead to mutations, which increase the risk of the cell becoming cancer; or, with the help of p53, cell death from apoptosis, the innate ability of a cell to kill itself, when an injury likely cannot be repaired.

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Repair protein may prevent damage to healthy cells during cancer therapy - News-Medical.net

Cell Biology

Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology And The Man Who Is Connecting It All: Felix Paul Joe – Outlook India

Thats the philosophy of Felix Paul Joe and preferably the biggest explanation one can have for his unflinching crusade in the field of biotech research. Felix founded GeneX India Bioscience Pvt. Ltd. in 2004 but, the journey before it prepared him for everything that came next.

After earning a Masters in Life Science and Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the University of Madras and Madras Productivity Council, Felix was all set to create his own path in biotechnology. But, revolution is a way paved stone by stone. Before realizing his passion and dream to become an entrepreneur, Felix completed a nine-year run in different biotech companies. As a National Sales & Product Manager, he embarked on a journey that shaped his understanding of what the industry is and what it needs.

He attended a plethora of application training on varied subjects like molecular biology, cellular microscopy, interphase chromosome profiling and Proteomics. His learnings from these teachings formed a crucial part of his ventures growth model in the later years. He also completed exclusive product training and lab sessions at many international labs and forums during his days as a manager. Working with many Centres for Excellence labs across India, Felix perceived the need for a bridge between the Indian and global standards.

In 2004, when Felix established GeneX India Bioscience, the company only started as a distributor of cell culture products. Molecular biology and biotechnology were then added to widen the spectrum. Today, the company focusses in the fields of bio-science research institutes, molecular diagnostic labs, biopharmaceutical R&D, biotech contract research and development centres.

Over the years, the organization created a line of products and solutions, namely Cell Biology, Real-Time PCR, Epigenetics, Next Generation Sequencing and Protein Biology. The private company is a full-fledged service provider for cell biology, flowcytometry and proteomics. As envisioned by Felix, GeneX also acts as a middleman nurturing quality products, scientific and technical support between biotech solution providers in Europe, USA, UK and Indian researchers who work across the relevant fields.

GeneX India has an experienced team of 33 scientifically-qualified professionals who possess the capability to market, conduct workshops, seminars. They cumulatively provide solutions to scientists and research scholars, helping them complete their research. The team works in constant collaboration mode to ensure a zero-defect product and service range. The stringent quality standard and client-centric approach have made the enterprise synonymous to the word biotech all across the world.

Following this unprecedented rise, GeneX India has been recognized for its efforts via major accolades like the Biotech Excellence and the APJ Abdul Kalam Excellence Award. The CEO magazine also noted GeneX as one of the 25 fastest growing biotechnology companies in India recently. Moreover, Felix himself has been the recipient of multiple national and international awards such as the Mahatma Gandhi Samman at the House of Commons, UK.

Even during the COVID pandemic, Felix and his company have been dedicated to aiding ICMR approved testing labs and kit manufacturers. Vaccine research labs and producers are being helped in complete sync too.

As the future entails, Felix is now set on scaling the firm to global benchmarks and giving Indian research the world stage it deserves. A plan to support the bioprocess and vaccine development has been put in place as well. He also aims to produce affordable molecular diagnostic kits using the latest technology like the CRISPR Cas9 Genome editing tool. A Contract Research Lab that acts as a high-end core facility with its primary focus on Genomics and DNA sequencing for molecular diagnostics is also in the works. The end goal is to provide services to biotech researchers and in turn, become a parallel economic solution provider for the high throughput, time-bound turnkey biotech projects and diagnostic labs.

A reputable part of the significant science congresses across the country, Felix has always had the vision to create a sustainable future for the world. He has a strong conviction that the firms business model should make a profound and positive impact on the lives of all the researchers it touches. His every step has been towards building his own pathway that treads towards this purpose.

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Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology And The Man Who Is Connecting It All: Felix Paul Joe - Outlook India